I found this today & thought that it was beautiful to share with you:
A poem-based chronology of the life of Christ
"Who has believed what he has heard from us?" Isa. 53:1
Who was this man,
Come from heaven?
A lion in tongue,
And a lamb in heart.
He came to serve men,
Yet He was the King of them.
He created the worlds,
But in an animal’s hay was
His first sight with human eyes.
Who is this King of Glory
That He would dwell among us?
Alas, how we hated Him!
Yet He became as one of us,
Under the full wrath
Of our worlds’ sinfulness.
Surely He was perfect,
Enduring pain, sorrow,
And even all temptation.
"A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" Isa. 53:3
Some loved Him
And believed He was
A man sent from God
To forgive our sins.
Secretly one of them sought Him,
In the dark of night,
To see if He was truly Him—
The One prophesied of
Since the world began.
Some followed Him,
Far into the wilderness,
Multitudes of wandering souls,
Seeking for food to truly satisfy.
"Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied" Isa. 53:11
And there He taught them
This Heavenly Teacher.
He sat on a hill and taught the people.
Wonders He proclaimed,
Mysteries He brought to life,
And their longings were fulfilled.
But when this Heavenly Man left,
Many doubted and accused Him,
Devising plans to undercut Him.
They mocked Him with their lies,
Calling Him a Son of the Devil.
Yet by His works
And through His words,
He proved to be the only
Beloved Son of God.
At such accusations
He withdrew His previous offer,
To be their King,
For they had rejected Him.
Yet He would not forsake men.
Out of eternal love
He endured this mockery
And began to teach
Words of life.
These He now hid in parables, though,
So that those who believed
He truly was God
Could understand and be saved.
This man, Jesus the Carpenter,
Had some closer to Him
Than all the rest who followed.
These He had chosen, twelve of them,
To follow Him and
Later to carry on His work.
To these disciples He spoke plainly,
But they did not believe Him.
As time passed, though,
Their understanding grew.
One night He proved His Deity
As He walked on the lake
In the howling wind,
He then got in the boat with them
And calmed the raging storm
With a simple word;
Just as He had done long ago
To create all, in the beginning.
And so they worshiped Him.
"He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted" Isa. 52:13
He also taught them
The depths of wisdom,
Of man’s desperate need
To have his soul eternally satisfied.
Jesus proved that He was
Such a satisfier for man.
At this Peter declared,
He being one of the twelve,
“You are the Christ,
The son of the living God!”
Therefore he believed
This man to be God,
The Master of the World
Now among mankind.
This Christ then took
Three of His disciples,
Peter being one of them,
And showed them His Deity.
Before them he became as white as light,
And, behold, God spoke
To them about His Son.
He declared Peter to be right,
That Jesus, being a man, was also God.
Alas, how humble and lowly!
For who has believed this?
We hated this King of Glory.
"He was despised and rejected by men" Isa. 53:3
Yet He still had compassion
On our spiritual blindness and incredulity.
He stooped to save us,
To show us our brokenness,
That He might save us and restore us.
A prostitute He saved from death,
Not that she was righteous,
But that none were.
He astounded His enemies,
And taught them how to lead:
By example, as a kind shepherd.
He taught them to love all,
Not based on their deserving.
He taught that prayer
Must be in earnest to God,
And not for the approval of men.
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way" Isa. 53:6
He taught them, also,
To forsake all and follow Him
As their only hope.
For Christ was far more
Than a mere example;
He proclaimed to be
The purpose for why men live,
That men were made to glorify Christ.
But even these hard teachings
He did not impose upon all,
Instead he sat with
The little children upon his lap.
He quietly taught them in this
That faith is trust,
Loyally entrusting oneself
To the Savior’s caring arms,
Like a son in a father’s loving arms.
Two blind beggars in Jericho
Showed this to be true.
Helplessly they yelled for Him,
As He passed by the city,
And at his bidding, they stumbled to Him.
There Christ did what none could do—
He healed them.
The hand of God touched them
And the impossible became possible,
Blind men could see!
"With his stripes we are healed" Isa. 53:5
And yet, and yet,
Even after all of this, few believed.
Jerusalem, His Throne,
The center of His coming Kingdom,
Detested and rejected His glory.
Sure, they saluted Him as King,
On the exact day that
Daniel had prophesied,
As Jesus entered the city.
But again they turned their backs on Him,
Tossed like waves in a storm.
And there the blood-curdling cry
As one man in rang-out against Him:
“Crucify! Crucify!”
The Lord of the Ages
Bowed His head
And did not rebuke them,
Or send down fire to devour them.
He let them have Him,
And they treated Him
As a despised traitor.
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." Isa. 53:7
Things too repulsive to utter
Were done upon the Christ,
As man killed God on that night.
Upon a cross they hung Him
Naked and despised,
Broken beyond all recognition.
Yet no man could rightly
Look Him in the eyes.
They knew what they had done,
In envy and pride.
They had forsaken their only Savior,
The only innocent man to ever live.
"As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance." Isa. 52:14
There this Christ bled,
He poured-out his lifeblood
And cried out in horrifying despair:
“My God, my God,
Why have you forsaken me?”
And in the darkness,
The holy Father could not
Bear to look upon His Son’s face.
For upon Him, His beloved Son,
God had placed the sins
Of the entire world.
A curse this carpenter became,
Cursed in the Father’s eyes.
And there, in the gloom,
Christ let Himself die.
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;" Isa. 53:4-5
O, what a tragedy!
Or, wait, was it a victory?
For He had prophesied
Long before His death,
That such could not hold Him.
What glory!
What wonder!
What majesty!
This man was God;
His Father, once His Son died,
Raised the Righteous One
To new, eternal life.
For God cannot die.
"He shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." Isa. 53:10
And again this humble King
Took the roads of Israel,
Proclaiming to mankind
And showing the skeptics
That He truly was God,
Raised from the dead.
In His mercy, He did not destroy us all,
For the hideous crime we had committed.
His love overcame,
And He left mankind for a time,
Until he would return in His full power,
To reign in His proper place,
As the King of Glory.
"He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted." Isa. 52:13
by Christopher R. Mattix, 22 yrs., Bolivia
